Success in WNIT is historic

Tuesday

Mar 26, 2013 at 12:01 AM

Some random thoughts for a Tuesday:

Bob Highfill

Some random thoughts for a Tuesday:

» The Pacific women's basketball team has advanced to the Sweet 16 of the Women's National Invitation Tournament, beating Arkanas-Little Rock 69-65 at home Friday and Washington 85-78 on the road Sunday. This Tigers team has advanced farther than any in program history and will host Utah at 7 p.m. Thursday.

» Before to the NCAA men's basketball tournament, Nate Silver of the New York Times calculated Florida Gulf Coast's odds of advancing to the Sweet 16 at roughly 3.3 percent - he had Pacific, another 15 seed, at 2.6 percent.

» More than 10,500 fans jammed the San Joaquin County Fairgrounds for the inaugural races at the Stockton 99 Dirt Track to see the World of Outlaws Series and special guest Tony Stewart. It might have been the largest crowd at a Stockton sports event since Las Chivas de Guadalajara drew about 21,000 for an exhibition match at Stagg Memorial Stadium in 2001.

» Linden principal Richard Schmidig made a bare-handed snag of a foul ball headed for the parking lot during last week's baseball game between McNair and Linden, no doubt saving a car from being dented or worse. Linden coach Joe Piombo wasn't surprised, telling Record correspondent Kevin Niendorf, "He plays in our alumni game every year."

» The Sacramento City Council will vote today on a term sheet for an 18,500-seat, $447 million downtown arena that if built could keep the Kings from moving. If approved, the deal will be presented to the NBA next month. The Maloofs have an agreement in place with a Seattle-based group to sell and move the team, but this is encouraging news for Kings fans.

» Never before have two NBA teams enjoyed longer winning streaks at the same time than the Heat, which made it 26 in a row after Monday's 108-94 triumph in Orlando, and Nuggets, who had won 15 consecutive games before Monday's 110-86 loss at New Orleans.

» Raiders quarterback Carson Palmer reportedly is not interested in restructuring his $13 million contract, meaning he likely will be released, which would free up cap space and a spot to draft West Virginia quarterback Geno Smith.

» Warriors guard Stephen Curry scored 35 points on 13-of-18 shooting and had eight assists in Saturday's win over the Wizards. Curry's the first Golden State player to record 35 points or more, while shooting at least 75 percent, and dish out eight assists since Chris Mullin in 1989.

» Tiger Woods is No. 1 in the world for the first time since Oct. 31, 2010. He's in fine form heading to The Masters next month in search of major win No. 15. "He's going to be hard to beat," Justin Rose said Monday after Woods won the Arnold Palmer Invitational.